. Here is, it seems to me, a rational explanation of
the facts, and one which is in accord, not only with ordinary
psychological phenomena, but with those more puzzling and obscure
manifestations witnessed from time to time in psychic research.

13. It may be objected that such a conception of the facts supposes that
will (and conscious thought) are physical energies--for however _slight_
we make this energy, it is still energy none the less. The air which
closed the door would not move it _of itself_--unless some pressure were
exerted upon it from without. Could "life" act otherwise?

One reply to this objection is that the distinguishing characteristic of
life is this very power of original, spontaneous movement. It is life,
and life alone, which possesses this power. Were this doctrine true, it
would of course upset the present theory of the Conservation of Energy,
for it would admit the constant infusion into the world of energy from
without. Despite the theoretical difficulty thus presented, it seems
probable that life is, in a certain sense, a physical energy, or at
least its manifestation is. It is possible that the two states are
similar to the difference between potential and kinetic energy; and we
must remember that _energy is always noticed or experienced by us, as
energy, in its expenditure, never in its accumulation_.[8]

If life be a physical force, if vitality be a specific energy, then, it
seems to me, many things fall into line--many phenomena, hitherto
inexplicable, become at once intelligible.

Let me illustrate this conclusion by mentioning a few such facts:

Take, for instance, the phenomena manifested in the presence of Eusapia
Palladino. I shall not now stop to discuss the reality of these
manifestations, because I consider them just as certain as any
other facts in life, and not at all open to discussion. Now,
in these phenomena there is an intelligence _of some sort_
at work producing them; that is certain. But as to the _nature_ of this
intelligence--_what_ it is--that is altogether another matter, and a
much more difficult question to answer. Whether this be a low order of
deceiving and "lying spirits," as Professor Barrett and others are
apparently inclined to believe, or whether it be a fraction of the
medium's own mind (Flournoy, Morselli), or whether it be the spirit it
claims to be, or whether it belongs to some other even more doubtful
order of intelligence, such as postulated by the